Detecting enteropathogenic Escherichia coli strains of porcine origin. 1. Correlations between O and K antigens and the enterotoxin production in strains isolated from the newborn piglet.

A study of enterotoxin production by means of biological tests (Y1 adrenal cells and suckling mice) using 67 Escherichia coli strains responsible for diarrhea in newborn piglets, confirmed the advantages of these methods and demonstrated the correlation between antigenic specificity and enterotoxin production. In particular the presence of capsular antigen K 88 is related to the thermolabile (LT) fraction of the enterotoxin in 73.9 % of the enteropathogenic strains studied.